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INSTRUCTION No

INSTRUCTION No. 683-TTg ON THE 16th OF NOVEMBER, 1994 OF THE PRIME MINISTER ON THE REARRANGEMENT OF THE HOUSING FUND CURRENTLY MANAGED AND USED BY THE MINISTRIES, MINISTERIAL-LEVEL AGENCIES AND AGENCIES ATTACHED TO THE GOVERNMENT

At present, a very big housing fund is being managed and used by the various ministries, ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government as headquarters, offices, conference halls, guest-houses, rest-houses, etc., but their use still involves many irrationalities, causing wastefulness and lack of efficiency.

To overcome this situation and bring this housing fund of the State under right and efficient use, and with the consent of the Government members at the meeting on the 10th of November 1994, the Prime Minister gives instructions on the following immediate tasks:

1. With regard to the guest-houses, rest-houses and hotels:

With regard to the guest-houses, rest-houses and hotels which are currently under the management of the Ministries, ministerial-level Agencies and Agencies attached to the Government (hereunder called Ministries), and which were built with different sources of funding, the Ministries shall, if they deem necessary, continue to manage and use them, but they have to take immediate measures to upgrade the materials bases and improve the management of these establishments, so that they can be refurbished, stop deteriorating and really change to business in order to achieve higher efficiency and better serve the vacationing State employees.

The Ministries must work out concrete plans to upgrade each of the establishments under their charge: invest in transformation and expansion of the material bases (by different sources of funding, including bank loans, equitisation, joint venture...) in order to ensure the business standard and meet the requirement of the clientele. From now on, no guest-house, rest-house or hotel which is State property can be assigned to other organizations without permission from the Prime Minister. All the assignments or transfers done prior to this Instruction are invalid, and these buildings must be returned to the State ownership.

Each guest-house, rest-house or hotel must readjust its internal management and really embark on business accounting, in conformity with the regime of accountancy, statistics and audit in force, must fully observe the regulations on business management according to law and under the State management of the local People's Committees as any other hotel in the locality.

The General Department of Tourism shall have to guide the activities of these establishments in order to meet the requirements in hotel business, such as: enforcement of the business statute, standardization of the managerial staff and the personnel, assisting in the fostering and training of professional managers of hotels, etc.

The controlling Ministries of these guest-houses, rest-houses and hotels can, if they so need, continue to use these establishments as usual, such as accommodating State employees of their branches at these establishments for rest or convalescence. Such establishments are also put to the use by those Ministries having no rest-houses or hotels of their own. These establishments still have the responsibility of giving preferential good services to the State employees sent by the Ministries. To ensure correct accounting, the payment for the accommodation and meals of the vacationers should be done according to a common price table.

2. With regard to the offices of the State agencies:

- In Hanoi capital city, the Ministries which have been newly created as the result of the merger of two or three Ministries, are allowed to choose the headquarters of one former Ministry as their new headquarters. The houses and land which become redundant as a result of the merger, shall have to be returned to the Government, because this is the common property of the State. No Ministry is allowed to rent or assign these houses and land to other units in their branches for use as offices or service businesses, or to allocate to their employees...

- In Ho Chi Minh City, at the time of the take-over from the Saigon administration, many houses were assigned to different Ministries to be used as second office of the Ministries. However, many of these houses have been used very wastefully, while others are used not for the right purposes. The question of their rearrangement has been raised many times, but no serious attempt has been made in this direction. It is now high time to bring a thorough solution to the question. The houses as defined at Pont 3 below are Government houses to be made available for the Ministries to hold their conferences or to accommodate their employees during the latter's missions to Ho Chi Minh City.

3. With regard to the systems of houses of the Government:

The following conference halls and guest-houses currently under the management of the Office of the Government, namely the Government Meeting Hall, the guest-house at 37 Hung Vuong Street, the guest-houses at 12 Ngo Quyen Street and No.2 Le Thach Street (currently managed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs) in Hanoi, the Conference Hall at 7 Le Duan Street, the Thong Nhat Conference Hall, the Tao Dan guest-house in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ly Thai To villa (currently under the management of the Foreign Relations Office of Ho Chi Minh City, the Ly Thai To villa (currently under the management of the Foreign Relations Office of Ho Chi Minh City), and a major guest-house to be constructed soon by the Government in the compound of Number 7 Le Duan Street, are Government houses for common use by all Ministries. This system of buildings must be constantly strengthened, upgraded and placed under unified management, in order to ensure the needs of the Ministries in meeting places and also accommodation for their personnel on mission to Southern Vietnam.

The Ministries may, when necessary, register to hold conferences at the above buildings without having to pay for the rent. When the need arises for board and lodging at the guest-houses of the Government, the personnel of the Ministries shall not have to pay the room charge but shall pay only for the meals.

The above buildings have the duty to provide caring service for the conferences of the Government and the Ministries, to safeguard the beauty of the places, and shall not conduct eating and drinking business there. The Thong Nhat Conference Hall shall continue to open to visitors, but when there is the need of the Government or a Ministry or a branch under the Government, the touristic function must be made subordinate to this need.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs shall proceed to hand over to the Office of the Government the guest-houses at 12 Ngo Quyen Street and 2 Le Thach Street, and the Ly Thai To villa within December 1994.

The Office of the Government shall work out the statute for the management and utilization of the houses directly under the Government for common use by each Ministry along the above direction, and submit it to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision, not later than the end of December 1994, so that it can be applied as from January 1995.

4. On the organization of the implementation of this Instruction:

a/ Each Ministry shall detail a working group to look after the tasks laid down in this Instruction. This group is to be led by an agency Chief. These groups shall, together with the working teams of the Government and the Department for the Management of Public Property (Ministry of Finance) settle expeditiously and neatly the questions within the jurisdiction of each Ministry. First of all, they shall have to compare the situation in their Ministries with the current undertakings and policies of the Government, and take the initiative in making the rearrangements, in order to make really efficient use of the housing fund under their management. The Government shall make decision on the recovery of the houses and buildings which no longer come under the management of the Ministries and branches.

The buildings handed over by the Ministries to the Government must ensure strict status quo in terms of land area, facilities and equipment currently in use. The Ministers shall have to take full responsibility for any losses of land and other property of the State at these establishments before they are handed over to the Government.

b/ The Government shall organize two special Working Teams to direct the works of an inter-ministerial character, each team is to be headed by an envoy of the Prime Minister:

- One Team is to handle the office buildings (including houses and land) which have become redundant as a result of the streamlining of the Ministries;

- One Team is to handle the office buildings (Second Buildings) of the Ministries in Ho Chi Minh City which are now handed over to the Government.

c/ The Ministry of Finance (Department for the Management of Public Property) shall take part in these two teams and organize the take-over in a most satisfactory manner, in order to prevent the loss of offices and houses of the Ministries as a result of the streamlining, as well as of Government buildings in Ho Chi Minh City after the Working Teams have definitively settled the hand-over of each building or house.

The Ministry of Finance together with the Ministry of Construction shall guide the ministries and the establishments in the re-valuation of their properties (including houses, land, facilities and equipment...)

The Ministry of Finance shall together with the Working Teams and concerned agencies propose a plan for the effective use of these establishments to the Prime Minister for decision, by the end of March 1995 at the latest.

The rearrangement of the housing fund as presented above is an urgent task aimed at making really effective use of State property, combating wastefulness and at the same time ensuring favorable conditions for the work of all Ministries and branches. The Prime Minister requests the Heads of all Ministries, ministerial-level Agencies and the Agencies attached to the Government and the Presidents of the People's Committees in the provinces and cities concerned to carry out this Instruction fully, expeditiously and seriously.

Prime Minister

VO VAN KIET